Sunday, December 12, 2010

Execution

Today's event was a Super Combined, which is a Super G plus one run of Slalom. The racers receive two official results, one being a Super G and the other being the combined times of the two runs (the Super Combined). Scott failed to execute in the Super G portion of the race finishing 38th, which became his start position for the Slalom.

The lift broke while Scott was enroute to the start and he sat for nearly 20 minutes. When he arrived at the start he was told that he had time to prepare, then heard the starter yell, "Anyone who's ready come on up and you're in." Scott saw numerous racers behind him in the start order get in line, and rather than lose his sequence and ski an even rougher course, he joined the mob. As it was he started about 10 racers late and he says that he never had a chance to get his mind in the right place before starting. That must be true since he went by me without ever tucking!

However, none of that is a valid reason for his performance. He simply didn't execute. Certainly one's mental state is key, but there will be many times when something like this happens. Scott needs to learn to adjust with these situations and develop alternative means for getting into his performance zone when things aren't perfect. There's so much to learn.

Scott did ski the slalom portion well and lower his Super Combined points. I was concerned about this since he hadn't been on Slalom skis since Nov 28th. So at least there's a positive to take from this. Racing continues tomorrow!

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